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“Ugh, it feels like it’s colder this year, or maybe not?”

Karem had ventured out into the Inner Castle for personal reasons after a long time. Even though he was wrapped up warmly, the cold air crept in through the gaps and made him shiver involuntarily.

The situation was tight as there was no set menu, and he had to prepare both lunch and snacks on a deadline, but somehow Karem managed to pull it off.

He felt a bit uncomfortable with his audacity.

Well, I guess half of it is my fault anyway.

But if I don’t eat the dishes popping up in my mind, I’ll feel sick. With the abundance of mammoth meat in front of me, the thought of beef bourguignon suddenly crossed my mind, and my body moved on its own.

Of course, as a price for such reckless thinking, I almost didn’t manage to prepare any snacks at all. This time, I silently thanked Mary for her unexpected intrusion.

“By the way, I wonder if they’ll like it.”

That thought crossed my mind while crossing the quiet street through the heavy snow.

The snacks I prepared were an extension of the delusions I had in the morning. Of course, they weren’t any ordinary pastries like fish-shaped pastries or chrysanthemum buns. I had no ghoul mold to make those.

But there was still something I could make.

Japanese-style red bean buns, dorayaki.

It wasn’t particularly difficult.

The bread part just needed to be made slightly thicker than regular pancakes.

In fact, getting that perfect golden-brown color, which symbolizes dorayaki, was the real challenge.

Although I didn’t have the main ingredient, red beans, I substituted it with similar peas. Mary’s expression turned bizarre at that, but I didn’t care. When have I ever cared about people’s opinions while cooking?

Karem had no lingering unease in his heart.

After all, pea filling existed in my previous life too.

Moreover, making pea filling doesn’t take as long as making red bean filling, so by the time Catherine finished her lunch, I could complete two baskets of dorayaki.

‘Then I’ll be back shortly.’

‘Huh? Aren’t you coming with me?’

‘I just thought of something, so I’ll head to the forge for a bit.’

‘The forge, huh. Alright. Put it on my tab.’

‘What? Can’t I at least use my own money?’

‘Spoiled.’

As he recalled the conversation he shared with Catherine right before they left, Karem felt a bit drained. Initially, he didn’t think much about it, but now it was starting to weigh on him.

“Ugh, whatever. What kind of job is this anyway?”

Karem quickened his pace, brushing off feelings of pressure, debt, and moral guilt about receiving so much from someone he liked.

His destination was Gobanio’s forge, where he always stopped by whenever he had an order to place, ever since he visited with Catherine.

“Ugh, looks like they’re still open…”

Huh? But the closer he got to the forge, the stranger the scene became.

The forge, which showed the marks of time, was covered in snow alongside a beautifully decorated horned helmet sign and a one-edged axe ornament.

Gobanio was standing in front of the forge, seemingly troubled by something long and black that was starting to get covered in the falling snow.

“What’s that, a snake—”

“Move aside!”

“Wah!”

Thud!

Karem bumped into the familiar yet strange giant without a moment to spare, falling to the ground. Thankfully, the snow was thick enough that it didn’t hurt.

“Ah, damn it. Snow went down my clothes! Hey!”

As he brushed the snow off his body and approached Gobanio, something longer and bigger than he expected came into view. He could see the cut surface.

“Gobanio, is that a tail?”

“Yeah. They say it’s a wyvern’s tail.”

“W-wyvern?”

A representative among the various dragon-type monsters, including Lindwurm and Drake.

He had seen one recently while accompanying an undead on a business trip.

“Seeing it like this, it really is long and big, huh? Is that a delayed delivery of an order or something? Because you look like you’ve got a headache.”

“It’s just something my damned son left as a ‘gift’ when he trash-talked.”

Gobanio ruffled his messy hair even more.

“If it’s your son, that reckless adventurer you’re talking about?”

“Yeah. My son, Gobar, the damn fool.”

Gobar resembled Gobanio as if someone just copied and pasted his image but made him a bit younger. It was something naturally learned when Gobar became a regular at the forge.

Anyway.

“A wyvern’s tail.”

Karem’s curiosity was piqued.

“Can I take a look?”

“Go ahead. That damn son of mine says it’s a gift, but all it’s doing is giving me extra work. Ugh—”

As Karem listened to someone’s grumbling, he shook off the snow covering the tail.

The thick and long tail was covered in black serpent-like scales, coiled messily. It felt stiff, perhaps because the cold made the muscles rigid, but there was a significant sense of resistance and elasticity.

“But who are you?”

“Me? Ah, I’m Karem. Karem.”

“Right. Karem. Huh? What? Who?”

Gobanio blinked in surprise, his focus solely on Karem.

“Um, have you heard about me? I mean, like rumors?”

“I’ve heard that Sir Atanitas fell head over heels for a personal chef who grew up under a curse.”

“Excuse me? Wait, what?”

Karem was startled, almost backing away from examining the wyvern’s tail. It felt like he had heard a terrifying rumor he shouldn’t have ignored. What? Who? What about whom?

“Hey, Gobanio, what did you just say—”

“Just check it out, you never know.”

“Wait. What? What’s that…”

“The magic chef’s knife.”

“Oh.”

Karem got up from his spot, reaching into his pocket to pull out Felwinter’s Lies, the magic chef’s knife. Gobanio gestured for him to turn the handle.

Shrrrrr— Sssssssss—

“The warmth and chill of that ornament and blade. It’s only reasonable that such a magic tool knife wouldn’t exist in duplicate. You are indeed Karem?”

“Well, it turned out that way.”

After turning the handle to extinguish the cold, Karem returned Felwinter’s Lies to its sheath. Right, that’s how a normal reaction should be.

“Wait, hold on, that’s not it!”

“Huh?”

“What were you talking about earlier?”

“What, the magic tool?”

“Before that! The part about ‘fell head over heels.'”

“Ah, the rumor that Sir Atanitas fell for you? I heard he fell for you at first sight when he saw you grow up under a curse.”

Karem instinctively fell to the ground, covering his head with his arms. How did that rumor get so distorted…?

“From your reaction, it seems the rumor was wrong, but this feeling is not completely off-base. Right?”

“…Maybe we should talk about that later and just focus on the order first?”

“Ohohoho! You’re just going to pass by such an interesting story?”

Gobanio’s eyes sparkled with interest, as if he had completely forgotten the headache.

“A fun story like this? No way I’m passing it up.”

“I guess so. Huhhh…”

Inside was a treasure trove of curiosity and intrigue.

“Well… I have no reason to hide it.”

“So if the rumor is wrong, does that mean the context is reversed?”

“Yes. I confessed to him.”

“Ooooh.”

“He hasn’t accepted it yet, though.”

“What matters is that he didn’t refuse. He didn’t say he disliked it either. Young genius chef Karem has made it big. You’ve made it!”

Nodding as if that was enough, Gobanio uncrossed his arms and sighed as he looked at the wyvern tail covered in snow again.

“Need a hand?”

“That would be nice.”

With a single motion, Karem stood up and lifted the coiled wyvern tail alongside Gobanio as they moved inside the forge.

Once inside, the heat from the forge struck him like a wave. The clothes that had defended him from the cold now felt cumbersome. The moment they moved the tail, Karem immediately started to take off his coat.

“Whew. This tail’s heavier than I thought. I assumed it would be hollow like a bird since it flies in the sky.”

“The bones are hollow like a bird, sure.”

“What about the weight, then?”

“It’s packed with muscle.”

Indeed, it felt pretty solid, not merely cold to the touch.

“Anyway, are we ordering something custom again?”

“As usual.”

Gobanio clapped his hands together and rubbed them excitedly.

“Great! Your requests are always welcome. It’s fun, and the coins are heavy. Sure enough, Sir Atanitas, being a Grand Wizard, has great taste.”

“But I’m the one struggling.”

“Why struggle when I pay? Isn’t that a good thing?”

Karem shot him a confused look as if trying to say something, but he remained speechless. He was both excited and found his words captured by Gobanio’s blunt honesty.

“Anyway, let’s get back on track.”

Gobanio nodded, showing he agreed.

“Well, I’m satisfied enough. So, what do you want?”

“I need a metal mold.”

“A mold?”

“Yeah.”

Karem received the wooden board and charcoal Gobanio handed him and roughly sketched the mold for the pastry, showing how it would work with arrows and examples.

It was just a mold after all; aside from the hinge illustrations connecting the two molds, the design itself wasn’t complicated. Gobanio nodded as if he understood.

“It should be a perfect fit so that the contents inside don’t spill out. Got it.”

“Yes. Can you make it out of copper?”

“Copper? If it’s copper, I can have it done by tomorrow. But can I guess? You want a mold that can bake in a specific shape, right?”

“You guessed it right away.”

“Ah, that sounds like a troublesome request…”

Gobanio frowned slightly, clicking his tongue and tapping his fingers on the board.

“Yes. Good-looking dishes taste good too.”

“Exactly. This will take some time. Unlike my father, I lack a sense of aesthetics. The mold should be left to the accessories guild.”

“It sounds like it’ll take quite a while.”

“Well, I can at least create a prototype. Just wait a moment.”

Gobanio gestured for Karem to wait and headed deeper into the forge.

Suddenly, something caught Karem’s eye. As he casually scanned the area, he instinctively moved toward the cold yet smooth wyvern tail and stroked it.

“A wyvern’s tail…”

From the side he could see, the tail didn’t have a single drop of fat visible. As Gobanio had said, it appeared to be filled only with muscle.

‘I wonder how it tastes.’

Filled with a transparent pink muscle similar to chicken, it seemed like the meat would be tough, but that wasn’t necessarily true.

Front legs of cows are full of exercise, but they can be soft if cooked properly, and chicken legs are quite tender indeed.

While not a trace of fat was visible, just like how chicken breast can be tender despite lacking fat, I personally favored the firm meat.

‘Soy sauce should work for steaming. No, maybe I’ll fry it first.’

Steaming tends to soften even tough meat and make it delicious, while fried foods can become tasty regardless of how poorly they’re made. But then it’d feel a bit like cheating.

“Gobanio! How are we going to handle this tail?”

Since there was a real owner involved, I decided to ask politely first.

“What, the wyvern tail?”

“Do you have any other tails besides this one?”

“I’m going to boil down the cartilage to make glue, and for the bones, I’ll use them in weapons, and I plan to make armor and gloves as well.”

“What about the meat?”

“Well, I won’t need to go to the butcher for at least a week. Why?”

“Can I use some?”

“You?”

Karem often made something and shared it for others to try. Gobanio had had the opportunity to taste it and clearly knew his skill.

“Gobanio! I’ve brought the order!”

Just as Gobanio was about to speak, a man carrying a large sack walked in through the door.

“Huh? What’s this? We had a guest.”

“The items you ordered? Me?”

“Don’t you remember? You said you’d bring the wood for the arrows.”

“Oh right, right. I’ll go get them.”

The man shrugged and began to unpack.

As Gobanio had said, the bundle was filled with arrow shafts.

“Huh?”

Among them was a bundle of sticks that were skinny and short, which didn’t really look like arrows.

“What’s with these thin sticks? There’s more than one.”

“Ah, those are the leftovers after carving the arrow shafts. I thought you could use them as kindling.”

“Interesting.”

As Gobanio checked the arrows and escorted the man out, Karem inspected the bundle of skewers one by one.

The sticks were sharpened neatly, with tips that were far too pointy for kindling.

“So, Karem. A wyvern tail? Are you planning to show off your skills?”

“Yep. Do you like skewered food?”

“That’s not the kind of dish I was expecting.”

“It’s the forge, so don’t you have some ingredients around?”

“What great ingredients could go into skewers?”

With Gobanio taking the lead, the shelves of the forge had everything from Fire Witch Finger powder, garlic, wine, honey, sugar, and more. However, the two most essential ingredients were missing.

Karem separated the cleaned skewers and stood up.

“I’ll be back shortly from the castle.”

“Wait, how elaborate are your skewers going to be?”

“Just wait and see.”

Karem had overflowed with confidence, determined to toss every skewer he had ever had into the trash can.

 

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